Photos by Angelique Ashby
Seven months after it was destroyed by fire the newly rebuilt Fort Natomas was open for play today!
Last month hundreds of volunteers gave thousands of hours to rebuild the playground. Over the past several weeks volunteers put the finishing touches on the playground.
“Because of all of our work we brought our playground back from the ashes,” said Councilman Ray Tretheway. “Now, with Christmas just around the corner, we will
have a wonderful gift for our children and our community for generations to come.”
This play structure costs upwards of $2 million dollars to build…while the fire station across the street looks like it is falling down.
The play structure is in the wrong spot, it should have been built well onto the property and not on a major intersection.
The neighbors now have ten times the traffic and noise to deal with.
This project was fast tract and started on ELECTION day by Fargo and Tretheway to buy Fargo votes…Gee glad we rushed to get it built in time for winter…
But I will be attacked for being against children or anti parks..or something… well I have two young children and we love parks… just not this one… at this cost…in this place…and built for the purpose of buying votes in South Natomas for Ray and Fargo…
Well It didn’t work for Fargo, her own neighbors would not vote for her…and it wont work for Ray in 2010 if he decides to run.
I want to see an audit of the Fort Natomas Non-Profit and all the funds that went towards this play structure.
Gadfly….did you go to any of the SEVERAL OPEN meetings that were held to voice your opinion on the building of Fort Natomas?? Did you send letters to Trethaway or Fargo letting them know your opposition?
1000’s of people worked very hard on this project. It’s sad to see comments like this.
Just a reminder, funds used to build parks are not the same funds to build fire stations. And vice/cersa! I also believe that there was some insurance money used to rebuild this, as well as some money from fundraisers.
Dody…the project was fast tracked and only insider like yourself knew about any meetings. And there is nothing ANYONE could have done to stop the construction of this play structure, Fargo and Tretheway fast tracked it for the election.
As for the 1000’s of volunteers I appuad their effort and community spirit, however thier community spirit has nothing to do with how this project was built, how much it costs, ond how the Fort Natomas non-ptofit organization refuses to release any finacial information on the total amoput of donations raised and in kind gifts.
I have heard the donation effort raised almost a million dollars by itself, not including the 1.3 million that came from the City and insurance. This is an obscene amount of money given the cost of material was less than 150K. and the structure was built mostly by volunteers.
And as for your assertion that the money could only have been used to build a play structure you are wrong, and you know it, over $1 Mil came from the South Natomas Capital Improvement Fund…which could have gone towards a new fire station.
The project was built without anyone asking the surrounding neighbors their feelings about having all of the new traffic and noise less than 80 feet from their front doors. (they now have no parking in front of their own homes.) There should have been an Environment Report completed on the impacts to the neighborhood. How would you feel if you owned a house next to this thing…which is also going to attract troublemakers at night, regardless of and lights or “video surveillance”.
Your are a Fargonian Droid…and I suspect you made quite a tidy sum off the project personally…so your not an objective voice for anyone in this community.